Happy Halloween!

For the first time in 21 years, I'm not going Trick or Treating this year.  I took the youngest last year, but this year, he's shot up about 6 inches and grown a tiny mustache, so I don't think he can pull off looking 12.   I would like to think of something fun we can do to celebrate, but I haven't come up with anything yet.  Our homeschool group isn't having a Halloween party this year and the church's celebration was a couple of weeks ago so I guess we will just have a normal Thursday, unless I think of something.  

We are still here.

I'm doing okay.  My brother is on vacation this week and is going to handle all the details regarding mom's move.  I am working since I never get paid time off.  Yesterday, I got done with work, hurried to the library to get a couple of book holds while they were still open, went to Gamestop and exchanged a used Nintendo DS with my son and then came home to enjoy my book.  Creative Doodling and Beyond.  Today, we've got a 4H meeting and my oldest is supposed to call from Mississippi and I will have to go to the lab to give a urine sample.  Again.  I am still feverish, which I have been, with only a couple of days break, since at least August the 8th.  I'm going on 3 months.  However, in my quest to figure out why I was having all over joint paint despite being gluten free, I tried something else, which seems to be working.  If you recall, back in July, I tried going without nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes and peppers) but that didn't seem to make a significant difference.  Maybe it made me less stiff but I am not sure.  So Sunday, in desperation, I went off of  dairy, just to see if it helps and so far, so good.  I kind of hate that it is dairy, because I love to put cheese on everything and in everything, but I want an answer and I want to be able to walk around at things like the state fair, without suffering, so I guess I will cope with it.  It's fun finding out new things like this.  Really.  So much fun coping with moving my mom, the holidays coming up, cold weather, being sick and feverish for 3 months, undergoing training at work on a new system and having my pay cut to 1/4 of what it has been. 

Sorry.  I descended into a little self pity.  Really, I'm okay but I will be glad to see 2013 ending. ( Hey, 2013, don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out! )  The good news is my son is coming home for Thanksgiving, the kids are fine.  School is going well.  It's fall and the fall colors are finally here.  I enjoy the weather this time of year.  (Thinking positive there, did you see that?)

Dealing with changes.

One of my methods of dealing with change is trying not to think about it very much.  I'm just doing the next thing and the next.  I feel like, once mom is settled in at her new place, I will feel better, but right now, facing the last week of her living in the home I grew up in is hard.  Very hard.  I kind of agree with Sheldon on this one.

Now I know what true power feels like.

Just kidding.  That's a phrase my daughter used yesterday when I showed the baby how to flip the light switch because of the expression on the baby's face.  It was so cute.  Today, was kind of exhausting emotionally because I went and signed my mom up for the assisted living facility.  I didn't want to, but I do think it is the best thing.  Nobody feels comfortable with mom staying alone at night and nobody can really stay there either, occasionally yes, but not all the time indefinitely and we've gradually increased the hours of the girl who has been staying with her during the day, until it's just not feasible to keep paying that much all the time.  It's very sad.  I have been crying off and on all day long (while also working).  The kids were doing school when I got back and I felt like bargaining, so I made a deal with them for them to cook dinner instead of their cleaning chores today.   That was a great deal.  We had hamburgers and french fries. 

Art journal pages.

I could rotate these but I am too lazy.

Whoops.

I forgot to heed this note to self last month.

Not as much.

I am not getting better as quickly as I would have hoped.  A couple of weeks ago, I was on an antibiotic that was actually working, but then I took the 10th day of it and the symptoms came back.  So now I am on the fifth day of a different antibiotic that does not seem to be working.  Bleh.  I am very weak and just want to sleep all the time.  Meanwhile, life just goes on.  Yesterday we had 4H and went out to dinner with the homeschool group which was great, as usual.  The kids are learning ASL and drawing from 2 really talented moms in our group.  

Today, I had to go to a different doctor for a different issue that is ongoing and I've put that off 3 or 4 times already, so I thought I'd better just go ahead and go.  At least that's over with now.   We are planning a baby shower for my nephew and his girlfriend and we are looking at the Sunday after Thanksgiving and that is December 1!.  Christmas is going to come so quickly after Thanksgiving this year.  We'd better get ready, it's coming.

weekend stuff.

A tote my daughter make to carry her sketch book.

A really pretty dogwood tree in my mom's yard.

A scene from the concert we went to last night  Jason Castro,  Sidewalk Prophet s and Matthew West. 

looking like fall.

The math notes.

Sometimes they are quite creative.

Tablet Cover

My daughter made this cover for my tablet today too.   She's had a very creative day.

COOL.

My daughter made this pencil case yesterday.   She has been experimenting with the sewing machine and looking at pinterest and this is the result.   Cool isn't it?

Schooling on a Monday afternoon ...

School at home.   In the kitchen.   This is what it looks like. 

Craft Fair Update.

My daughter did really well on the craft fair, selling 64.00 worth of things and also giving her card to a couple of people who want to order specially made crafts.  I do not know how that will turn out, but it was a successful show for other reasons, even if she hadn't made any money.  She's getting so good at standing up, greeting people, talking to people about her crafts, making change and being poised and professional.  We also had a good time talking to the other families who were there working with us and greeting people that we knew who were attending the fair. 

keeping on

I'm hanging in there.   I'm feeling better.   I have been without a fever for several days.   I still don't have all of my strength back, but hopefully I will soon.   tomorrow my daughter has a craft sale which will last all day and it will likely wear me out completely.  I'll let you know how it goes.  

Tired but okay.

I've been having trouble sleeping at night lately.  I go to sleep and then wake up, then go to sleep, then wake up.  I spend hours doing this and then get into a decent sleep around 4:00 am or so.  This morning my alarm went off at 6:45 and I was not ready for it.  I feel pretty tired.  However, I don't feel feverish or sick, so I guess I'll take it.  Both kids are babysitting today.  The girl is taking care of the baby as usual and the boy is entertaining her 7 year old brother.  Really I think he's just having fun with him.  They were playing video games and just a minute ago I heard boy fake-fighting sounds so I think maybe they are doing that.  On Tuesday, they played a lot of Nerf.  We have Nerf darts all over our house, but we pretty much did before Tuesday anyway.  Those things seem to multiply.  Move any piece of furniture in this house and you'll likely find a Nerf dart behind it and probably a paper airplane.  It used to be that we had Barbie shoes all over the house too, but the girl seems to have outgrown that sort of thing. 

We got to talk to the big boy in Mississippi last night.  He says he's doing okay.  He has a lot of work to do this trimester because he has taken Spanish, Algebra 1 and Music Theory.  In Spanish, he said he had to learn 60 verbs and be able to conjugate them all for a test today.  Music theory was really hard for him at first because he didn't know how to read music, but he says he's getting used to that now and doing okay.  In algebra, he has a D average right now, but he is thinking he will pull that up to a C on the next test.  He has to keep a C average to keep his scholarship, so he's working really hard on that.  I am very happy that he is studying in school.  We did have some trouble getting him to do his homework when we were homeschooling him. 

Speech Recognition Fun, etc.

First the etc:  I did have some work today and I was thankful for it.  My daughter was babysitting but I didn't get to see the kiddos much because I had work and I wasn't going to miss out on it.   Right this moment, I'm out of work, taking a break, eating lunch, blogging and watching a little bit of The Mentalist, ...Netflixing, as the term is, for watching entire seasons of a show all at once.  What I made for lunch is kind of a long story.  I saw on Pinterest the other day that someone had made a pizza grilled cheese, basically instead of a slice of american cheese, you put mozarella, pizza sauce and pepperoni.  I showed it to my daughter and she made one the other day and said that it was good, but it used up the last of our gluten free bread.  So today, I used some of the Pamela's baking mix that I use for things like Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie and put in the leftover pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni.  It was pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  Since the girl is not crazy about pepperoni and my gluten free cooking always seems to be whatever the other GF people in the house like, I'll make it next time with sausage.  Yum.  Another variation I have done with the cheeseburger pie was to rehydrate dried onions and make my own version of a White Castle hamburger.  I really enjoyed that, but again, the girl doesn't care for it so I won't be having it very often.  Unless, of course, I decide to do small, customized ones in muffin tins ... :-) You may have noticed I am giving up the nightshade free experiment.  I tried it for a couple of months and didn't see any remarkable improvement in my joint pain/stiffness, so I'm back on some limited tomatoes, ketchup and pizza sauce and things like that.  I still haven't been eating potatoes because I used to eat way too many and I don't really see the benefit of adding them back in.  The kids are doing better than usual with school this week.  They dived in and tackled their workloads yesterday.  We'll see if it continues, I guess.  It will be nice to have a more peaceful Friday night. 

Then the speech recognition fun:

The doctor said:  40 mg over the PEG once a day.  (which means the medicine was administered          through the stomach tube, a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, PEG for short.)

It typed:               sporting over a bed once a day.

The doctor said:  comes to the hospital.
It typed:               Comes 2-D possible

The doctor said:  Not compliant with her clonidine.
It typed:               Not complying with a clot in her body.

It's hilarious when it's not your job to edit it.  :-P

Speech Recognition.

I'm on my second week now of editing speech recognition generated reports.  It takes forever and is a giant pain in the behind and pays very little, so I'm really thrilled with it.  Its an honor, really to be asked to do it.  

Here's a tiny sample.

Here's what the speech recognition software thought the doctor said:

Maximum tolerated 0.3 mg 3 times a day, Plavix 70.  Fasting patient here under court order.  Will hold:  Low.  Home blood pressure meds.  I have emphasized eluding to counsel and estimated heart failure preoperative hard drugs are intolerant of Lipitor with severe muscle aches and pains.

And here is what he actually said.

Clonidine 0.3 mg 3 times a day.  Plavix every day.   The patient is allergic to aspirin.  She also takes Toradol.   She is allergic to aspirin.  She breaks out in hives.  She is allergic to nonsteroidal anti-inflamatory drugs.  History of allergy to sulfa drugs.  She is intolerant of Lipitor with severe muscle aches and pains.

It goes on and on and on and on like this.  I work really hard for an hour and earn about 3 dollars.  

Edited to note:  Actually I made 1.46 per hour.  So even better.  

 

Currency.

I am not feeling well again today, aching all over.  I'm tired of it frankly, just so, so tired.  Anyway, I've been making some deals with the kids to get some things done.  I made a deal for getting the dishwasher loaded and then I started working on a deal to get the fridge cleaned out, I call it yucky food patrol.  We live in the country and don't have a garbage disposal, so we just throw the old food out for the woodland creatures.  They eat it up.  (Except for that time I made lentil stew and no-one would eat it, not even the forest scavengers and it just sat there for weeks).  Anyway, my youngest son was not having any of it.  He never wants to have to do yucky food patrole.  My daughter, on the other hand, was willing to negotiate.  I have 3 types of currency at my disposal:  actual money, screen time and chore freebies.  She was not interested in the money as she babysits and has a business and and always has more money than me, but she was interested in screen time and freedom from chores.  So she came in with a low offer of 1/2 of her chores off one day next week and 1 hour of screen time today.  I went for it and now the fridge is cleaned out, the dishwasher is running and I am making chili for lunch.

Crap.  I just took my temperature while I was typing this and its elevated again, despite the antibiotics I am on.  :-(

Really weird.

The kids are gone to a 4H day camp today.  It's about science and video production and lasts all day.  I'm pretty sure they will enjoy it.  They've got some friends there and science and video production sounds like fun.  Anyway, with my husband gone to work, that means I am alone in the house with the dogs.  That almost never happens.   I don't particularly like it.  I'm not one of those moms who needs a lot of time away from my kids.  I like them.  Anyway,  the report on my illness is this --- for the first time since August 8th, I do not have a fever.  Woohoo!  Augmentin is doing the trick.  Thank goodness.  I was able to do my volunteer shift last night, although I did have some shaky legs and I made sure that I sat as much as possible.  It wasn't difficult last night as there were plenty of babies who needed someone to just sit and hold them. 

Today I am continuing training on the new speech recognition editing at work.  Each day I can do 3 of the new type of reports which have to be sent to quality assurance for review and then I can work the rest of the day on the old system.   The trouble is, there is not much to be done on the old system.  So far, I've only got 1 report through there.  So while I am waiting for some work to show up, I am trying to watch last night's Big Bang Theory, but it keeps showing me last week's show. 

After work today (if there is any work), I will go get the kids, take the girl to piano and get on with the regular Friday afternoon stuff. 

Wednesday.

So Monday I got another antibiotic and today I got another one.   Again, the culture was growing out something different.  I have no idea what is going on.  I just take everything I am told to take and keep trying to put one foot in front of the other, despite being very, very weak.  I managed to cook today and I worked on the new computer system at work I've been training for.  It's kind of a pain in the behind but I guess I'll get used to it eventually.  Meanwhile, my husband and kids have been doing a lot of my stuff for me.  The girl has been doing cleaning and my husband has been grocery shopping.  

I am glad that during this time of difficulty, we are homeschooling, which means we don't have to get up early, worry about missing the bus, homework or anything else school related.  The 2 high schoolers that we are homeschooling are reasonably well trained and get their work done on their own.  They do push on the deadlines a bit, but they get it done.   I am thankful for that.